Kite Festival 2012

Last weekend we drove into Austin for the kite festival. I we always feel a little weird because we pack up a picnic and join all of the families with 5 or so kids or dogs. Anyway, we have neither. Clearly. By the time we get down to Zilker, we fit right in because there are so many types of people. 

Like this guy, who was one of a million walking around with a guitar.

I didn't really get any close up pictures of the unique kites because the wind was up and the kites were super high. We did see a cool one on the way out though.

The weather was awesome, I can't believe spring is already here. 

I love Austin.

Things I Learned At A Football Game

I scored tickets last minute to the UT vs OSU game for this past weekend. Chris had never been to a college football game, so I knew if I passed the tickets up again that I'd hear about it later if I told him.

So some things I learned at said game.

Don't forget the sunscreen. CHRIS! Just kidding, apparently I should have listened to my own advice. I assumed my makeup had enough sunscreen in it for me to be okay. Wrong. We both currently look like racoons. But only on the right side of our faces. Thank you sunglasses...

Don't wear crap shoes. Also known as flip flops. We had to walk a good half of a mile from where we parked, to the actual game, and back. My calves still hurt.

If you make plans to walk around downtown Austin after the game, be sure to watch your back. Really. After dinner, we were walking back to the parking garage to get our car and we were chased by a crazy dude wearing a kimono, waving paper guns in the air. Only in Austin? Maybe. Maybe that's why my calves really hurt. Now that I think about it, I was kind of run-walking.

Back to the game.

We had so much fun. We got there way to early, because that's how I roll. So, we had plenty of time to check the whole place out. We both came to the same conclusion.

We both want to go back to school. ASAP. We both knew this before we went to the game. Duh. But now it's really in our heads.

This post is all over the place, no?

Moving on.

If the awesome parents of a baby in your class offer you free tickets to a game again, take them. And run. The seats we had were AH-MAZING.

That picture is not zoomed in at all. It was awesome. Said parents have season tickets so the seats are always in the same place. Lucky them.

Which brings me to the next thing I learned...

Get rich really fast and buy season tickets to at least one college and NFL team.

Even though UT lost, we didn't care. It was all about the experience.

And? If I told you how much we spent all day (including dinner) you'd laugh. We seriously stayed on budget. That made the day even more enjoyable for Chris.

The Nearly Non-Existent Weekend

I can already tell that now that I have a Monday through Friday job that weekends are over before they even begin. Saturday we decided to get all of our "chores" done so that we didn't have anything to do on Sunday.

We're glad we did. Sunday we vegged on the couch and watched football. I made chicken tortilla soup. It was a very chill day and that's what I needed. Especially since I've completely lost my voice. As in, I can barely even whisper. It's bad.

Saturday night, some of my family got together here and we had dinner and hung out outside by the fire. Here are a few pictures I took from that night-

C & T sitting outside after we ate.

My aunt A, and her boyfriend T.

V and C.

The cozy bonfire.

Us!

My grandparents.

C, V, & B.

D and V.

It was fun getting out and getting together with everyone.

Hello, Fall & Other Ramblings

Today is (finally!) the first full day of Fall. I just need to find my door hook so I can hang up my fall wreath outside. Bring on the cooler temperatures! 

I'm in the mood to bake. Good thing because Chris has a birthday this weekend. 


At the beginning of the week Kim, Kinsley, and I met for lunch here-

It was yummy as usual, and we got to catch up on our gossip. If you live in the area, go now. 


After lunch, we walked around the square and found ourselves in a children's boutique (of course!). Kinsley fell in love with these-

I'd heard of them but never seen them. Hilarious.


I'm supposed to be staining a shelf that we bought last weekend at Ikea, but I can't get into it. Maybe tomorrow. 


I feel like a single woman these days (ya know minus the "single" part) because Chris is working so much overtime right now. He leaves at 9:30 am and he doesn't get home until 12:30 am. 


That is all.

Cheap Entertainment

I'm not gonna lie. We are broke. Like, flat broke.  But it's all good because we've got freedom! and privacy! which come along with bills. 


Last weekend we spent half of our Saturday at the library. Hello! I should have named this post "free entertainment" but I guess it did take gas to get there. We loveeee the library. Like, loveeee. But if you are one of my 2 readers then you already knew that.


Of course we always get books while we are there, but the main thing we do is read magazines. Chris reads all the science/car/sports ones and I read the foodie/entertainment/photography ones. Sometimes he picks up the photography one first. Then I knock him out and run and sit on it.


Kidding.


And it may sound boring to you, but that's how we spend our "we're broke and bored" Saturdays. 


This week I picked up-

Mockingjay was also in this stack, but I already returned it. Didya see the CD's at the top of the stack?

I've been on the hunt for that Enya CD since right after my mom died. It was one of her favorites. 


Chris got a couple of books but already read/returned one so I didn't take a picture. 


Anyway, go to your library. It's fun!

Another Cupcake Post

Maybe I'm obsessed, but any time I can get someone to go to the cupcake bakery with me, I jump at it. While my brother was here I took him because of course, he'd read my blog post about this place. He's boring so he got the vanilla cupcake, which is good! but there are so many other flavors to choose from.

Anyway.

I'm usually boring, and when I find something I like I usually stick with it, but I tried something different.

Lemon. Also known as "Satellite".

It. was. so. good. I'm not even kidding. I don't know what it is with me and lemon these days but, yum.

*If you want to make your own lemon cake, I have the best recipe.*

Tyler was happy with his choice of cupcake, and he proceeded to make fun of me while I was eating mine. What can I say? They're as messy as they are good.

Water, Water, Everywhere

It's freakin' hot here right now. I can't wait until this time of the year. So, since we still have a couple of months of sweltering heat left, we are always looking for a new way to stay cool. There is a small water park in Round Rock that we like to go to. My cousins had never been before so they tagged along as well.

Tyler and Chris like the water slides.

These kids have no fear of water.

For real.

Piggy back rides from Chris.

After swimming all afternoon we went to dinner at my most favorite place-

Seriously, I love this place. Chris? Not so much. I will wait hours to get a seat here. And wait we did. So we took pictures and talked.

Not sure what I'm looking at in this one.

Finally it was time for the FOOD!

This face cracks me up!

He loved Chuy's. Of course he did, he's my brother.

Baseball

My brother came down to visit us for nine days back in July. Over the next few days I'll be highlighting the things we did while he was here. Every day he texts me and asks when I'm going to blog about it. Finally I'm getting around to it!

The same day we went to get him, we went to a baseball game. It was just minor league, but that's what he wanted to do so we did. I don't know anything about baseball, I'll admit that right away, but we still had fun!

I thought it was pretty boring until like, the 6th inning and then things got fun! Tyler did try to explain the rules of the game to me but I'm not sure how much of it I actually got.

That picture doesn't show it, but Chris and I seriously bought tickets for some damn good seats considering we had no idea what we were doing. Tyler was impressed.

Speaking of impressed, apparently this guy is someone worth knowing because when Tyler found out he was pitching you should have seen his face. He was continuously texting my other brother, who also loves baseball, about how he was watching a game where he actually pitched. We tried getting a picture of him, but they didn't turn out too great.

After 13 innings, we lost, here is a picture right before we lost.

And then leaving...

Told you he liked baseball.

Chris and I never thought we'd spend a Saturday night at a baseball game. It was seriously fun though.

Vacation-Part 4 of 3

The last post ended up being much longer than I anticipated so here is the rest of our Sunday...

After floating the river for a few hours we were starving. My aunt suggested going to The Salt Lick, and it worked out great because Chris has lived here over three years and we still hadn't made it out there. Also, we were already out that way so we went to the Driftwood location. The boy loves BBQ. But, BBQ is different in Tennessee that it is in Texas. There, you can get pulled pork just about anywhere (that's his favorite), but here it's much harder to find. Beef rules in Texas.

Well he got lucky because we happened to go on a Sunday, and guess what was on the menu just especially for that day? A big fat pulled pork sandwich. He was nearly dancing on the table. Seriously, ask one of the other seven people that were with us.

This is his, "I can't believe I am here and about to get this awesomely delicious pulled pork sandwich!" face.

The sandwich took up over half of the plate. You can't even see the cole slaw, beans, or potato salad that he also devoured.

I'm not even sure he realized I was snapping pictures. But this...this is what got me excited...

Pickles. Yum. Chris ate the onions. Yuck.

 Chris also ate half of my plate. Sausage and brisket included.

Oh, and he tried some of Mason's baby back ribs. I think he may have eaten something off of nearly everyone's plate. He had to try it all!

At this point, we are all wondering if he has a hollow leg or something. I hadn't seen him eat this much in years. I'm not exaggerating. But then he stopped. And I thanked God because I had to ride home with him and his onion breath.

 But oh no, he didn't stop because he was finished. Nope, he had another trick up his sleeve.

His most favorite dessert ever. He and Megan shared this massive slice of warm pecan pie.

He may or may not have been shoveling it in eating it with his hands. The look on my aunt's face says it all. We just couldn't figure out where he was putting all of this food. And then it was gone.

Countdown to our next vacation- 9 days.

*Where Chris is bound to gross me out by eating some sort of critter that lives in the ocean.*